Former bookkeeper gets five years for theft of $400K from Woodbury medical practice

WOODBURY -- A Woodbury Heights woman was sentenced to five years in state prison today for stealing more than $400,000 from the Woodbury medical practice at which she worked.

Roselie Hernandez, 45, pleaded guilty this past December to stealing the funds between 2002 and 2009 when she worked as a bookkeeper at the practice.

According to Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld, the plea agreement included a provision that Hernandez could avoid prison time should she pay $100,000 toward restitution at sentencing. Under those circumstances, she would still have to pay full restitution and would serve probation.

She arrived, however, with a cashier's check for $80,000, Weisenfeld said.

Citing the large amount stolen, and the fact that she'd fallen short of a deal she'd negotiated with prosecutors, Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall enforced the option for prison time.